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Robertson content with UK Championship performance as semi-final appearance approaches

Robertson will place Zhou Yuelong in the semi-finals

Neil Robertson felt close to perfection after overcoming Mark Selby en route to the Betway UK Championship semi-finals.

Robertson has been in scintillating form in 2020 and that continued in the Triple Crown event in Milton Keynes, downing fellow world champion Selby 6-2 in the last eight.

Breaks of 122 and 130 alongside four other half-centuries lit up the scorecard for the Australian, who will now face Zhou Yuelong for a place in the UK final.

“That was my best performance of the week. From start to finish it was really good, my concentration was there, and apart from missing the black in the third frame, it was a fantastic performance,” he said.

“I can’t really pick out anything I did wrong in the match. My safety was good, I was aggressive, didn’t allow him to have free safety shots, I was making him have to play really good safety shots.

“If he didn’t, I had a chance at a long red and my long game was good, I won a lot of frames from my long potting.

“So far this season, especially in the two finals I’ve played, it’s taken top, top performances from my opponents to beat me.

“If you can shut people down with positive safety, you can stop people playing shots against you.”

Few players have matched two-time UK champion Robertson for form and it’s now up to Zhou to try and stop the Thunder from Down Under.

The Chinese cueman has already knocked out John Higgins and Jack Lisowski in Milton Keynes, with this his best performance in a major event.

Confidence will be high but Zhou has bad memories when facing Robertson – losing 9-0 in his maiden ranking event final when the two faced off in January’s European Masters.

“Last time we played it was 9-0, he’ll be very determined to put that result right but I won’t put too much focus on the way he’s playing,” added Robertson.

“It’s going to be his first semi-final, which is a big occasion for him. I’m very much used to being in that environment, with or without crowds.”

For Selby, meanwhile, there were no complaints around losing to the better man.

“I don’t really feel that I’ve done that much wrong. I’m sitting here having lost 6-2 and there were hardly any balls I missed,” he said.

“In the first three frames, I didn’t get a chance at all – not even at a pot. Every time I came to the table I got snookered.”

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